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GEOCRITICAL INVESTIGATIONS of CHRONOTOPIC LITERARY BORDER SPACES from BEOWULF to BLOOD MERIDIAN By

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GEOCRITICAL INVESTIGATIONS of CHRONOTOPIC LITERARY BORDER SPACES from BEOWULF to BLOOD MERIDIAN By BORDERLANDS AND BAD BOYS: GEOCRITICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF CHRONOTOPIC LITERARY BORDER SPACES FROM BEOWULF TO BLOOD MERIDIAN by Raymond E. Stockstad, B.S. A thesis submitted to the Graduate Council of Texas State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with a Major in Literature May 2016 Committee Members: Susan Morrison, Chair Mark Busby Nancy Wilson COPYRIGHT by Raymond E. Stockstad 2016 FAIR USE AND AUTHOR’S PERMISSION STATEMENT Fair Use This work is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, section 107). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgment. Use of this material for financial gain without the author’s express written permission is not allowed. Duplication Permission As the copyright holder of this work I, Raymond E. Stockstad, refuse permission to copy in excess of the “Fair Use” exemption without my written permission. DEDICATION To my wife, Kelly, whose unwavering support and love sustain me in all I do. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge the sage advice and support of my thesis committee, especially my thesis director Susan Morrison. Susan’s passion for medieval English literature stoked a similar passion within me. Nancy Wilson believed in me from the moment we met, and her support elevated my writing as well as my spirit. Mark Busby opened my eyes to the deeper meanings great writers leave in their work for those willing to seek those meanings. Other English Department faculty broadened my interests and challenged me to grow. Jaime Mejía made me a better writer and remains a great mentor. Victoria Smith expanded my worldview. Joe Falocco made me a better instructor. Marilyn Olson taught me to remember that literature is not just a thing to be analyzed but relished as well. Rob Tally helped me to see literary landscapes as places often more vibrant and real than any I can physically experience. Leah Schwebel reminded me to laugh, even (or especially) when others are aghast. In addition to providing support and love throughout my academic career, Kelly Stockstad has been an invaluable sounding board, audience, and copy editor. Finally, I wish to acknowledge David Coe—professor, mentor, and friend. He planted the seed, which bore this fruit. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v CHAPTER I. BORDER CHRONOTOPE: A PLACE FOR THE ADVENTUROUS, A TIME FOR CONFLICT .........................................................................................1 II. THE INTERSTITIAL DIVIDE: WHERE THE MARGINAL AND MARGINALIZED MEET .........................................................................11 III. A BORDER CONSOLIDATED, A BORDER WEAKENED: BEOWULF’S FEATS OF DERRING-DO—HIS ELEVATION AND HIS DOWNFALL .............................................................................................17 IV. INCURSIONS AND REFUSALS: MEDIEVAL LITERARY BOUNDARIES ASSAULTED ............................................................................................34 V. COMMERCE, FAITH, AND MATRIMONY: TRADE FREELY GIVEN (AND REJECTED) ....................................................................................41 VI. ABSURD BOUNDARY BREECHING: SEEKING UNIVERSAL TRUTHS IN REPETITION .......................................................................................49 VII. CROSSING BORDERS AND BREAKING BOUNDARIES: THE BORDER GENRE .....................................................................................74 WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................80 vi I. BORDER CHRONOTOPE: A PLACE FOR THE ADVENTUROUS, A TIME FOR CONFLICT What societies deem acceptable on their fringes is often frowned upon in their centers. From Beowulf to Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, borders are places where conflicting interests, ideologies, claims, and beliefs constitute sources for tension within a tale. Consequently, they are excellent locations at which to set a story. Tension is what drives a story, and borders are intentionally designed to resolve cultural tensions—or not—by declaring the boundary between two entities that have settled upon a division. When borders are crossed against the legal or tacit agreement, conflict occurs. This work investigates the role of borders as a setting in literature within Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Man of Law’s Tale,” William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Blood Meridian—five case studies spanning medieval to modern English literature chosen for their similar settings, characters, and action. They are tales in which borders are traversed by foreigners and people die violently as a result. This thesis explores literary examples to define the border genre. These are texts, situated wholly or in part along a geographical border, establish an “other” to maintain a psychic border that drives a defense of the physical one. The Case for Borders as Chronotopes When used as a text’s setting borders make certain types of characters and particular sorts of actions necessary because competing cultures adjoin at borders. Missionaries, soldiers, pioneers, and criminals tend to populate borders, as well as people escaping their past, intent upon making a fresh start. Each of these groups are either 1 defending or expanding the borders of their culture, exploiting the unsettled nature of the border for profit, glory, or a better future. Critical to the investigation of these and the other texts used in support of this investigation is understanding the purpose of border as a place within the texts. Robert Tally writes, The analysis of spatial practices and historical spaces allows us to recognize the degree to which literary texts both operate within and help to shape the geography of their worlds, and through them, of ours. In their literary cartography, texts give form to a world that makes it real, while also making sense of that world in an allegorical structure of meaning that enables the reader to generate alternative meanings. (99) The purpose of literary places is more than simply setting. They establish context beyond the space within which the action occurs. They establish the rules for conduct and the physics that must be obeyed. If the story is set in the past, then the author must portray the space faithfully to the period. If the story is fantastic, then the author must orient the reader with details that are familiar enough to anchor him or her. In the case of a border story, how the author defines where the action is in relation to the place that is the border affects the events of the tale. A hero can become a villain if the story places him on the wrong side of the border. The difference between place and space is one of definition: place is carved from space when it is named or provided some distinction from the space surrounding it. Consequently, the formation of a border is the creation of a place albeit one which is temporally bound. 2 In literature, borders that shift over time, established where none formally had existed before, create opportunities and conflicts. This fact is reflected in the many poems, tales, and novels set on or near a border and written in English. In the case of Beowulf, borders are not yet clearly defined during the time in which the tale is set. The poem begins at one border in Scylding lands that becomes solidified by Beowulf’s actions and ends at another border in Beowulf’s realm that is endangered by his choices. The Battle of Maldon details the perilous situation of Saxon lands in southern England during the Viking invasions, beginning in the late eighth century, that threatened the borders (and existence) of Anglo-Saxon England. Custance’s travels in “The Man of Law’s Tale” expand the borders of Christian influence within the tale in spite of apostasies and pagan resistance. During this time, the borders of the Roman Empire, and indeed of most of the known world, were in flux. Shakespeare’s Hamlet deals with an impending border incursion into Denmark following the main action of the play when Fortinbras and his Norwegian army storm the castle. In Cormac McCarthy’s five novels—Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain, and No Country for Old Men—set along the United States-Mexico border, which shifted over the more than 150-year span of time imagined in the books, the border becomes a symbol of the absurd. Focusing on Blood Meridian as our case study, we see shifting border shortly before a war disputing its definition erupts between the two nations. This war will redefine the border, a boundary place to which McCarthy’s characters repeatedly return, searching for a lost or desired object or person. These tales, and the many more found in English literature, comprise a chronotopically bound genre—the border genre. 3 Defining terms such as space, chronotope, place, border, and boundary is necessary for limiting what each of them means in the context of this discussion and what each of them mean in relation to one another. This is a difficult exercise because they are all somewhat nebulous terms that encompass many ideas depending on the realm in which they are employed. We begin with space and place. Tim Creswell introduces the terms: Space, then has been seen in distinction to place as a realm without meaning—as a “fact of life” which, like time, produces
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